that we don't want to inflict on you, but would have to by the design of the fiscal cliff, that oh, by the way, we created a year and a half ago. they actually couldn't get the social security cuts through this time. but republicans have promised and obama will probably be happy to go along with it that in the next few months they're going to you know, take another crack at "entitlement reform." but i think that whether or not this deal ends up being a good one for -- for democrats, depends on whether or not the president holds firm in the commitment he made. that he will refuse to negotiate on the debt ceiling. he is saying forget it. i'm not even going to talk about it. i don't care what you want to give me to raise the debt ceiling, i don't care what you want about the debt ceiling, i'm not going to touch the debt ceiling. now what does that mean? does that mean he is going to pay the debts even if the republicans don't raise the debt ceiling. we don't know, but he has insisted, both in private and with his staff in his public statements and in private with others that this is a